Kim Porter is a mechanical engineer, and her path into the field was not the straight line most people picture when they hear that. (It never is.)

We talked for about an hour — how she actually got there, what leadership looks like when you're in a technical career, and the real list of things aspiring engineers should be doing right now that most of them aren't.

Kim is direct. What makes a good engineer goes way beyond being good at math, and she gets into it in a way that's useful, not just poster-on-the-wall inspiring. If you're in school trying to figure out whether engineering is the move, already in it and wondering what's next, or just curious what the field actually looks like from the inside — this is a solid hour to spend.